Chase

Despite being conservative on most issues, this is an area I am distinctly liberal on. Here's a conservative take on the issue we have with prison populations rising however. If we continue to crowd them under the notion that we are putting away threats to society, the taxpayer money needed to house them increases with the population. Monetarily speaking, locking them all up isn't a solution. The reality is that prison all to often is what the owner of the facility wants it to be. Private prisons actively encourage increasing population because they profit off of it. Public prisons vary based on the attitude the state(s) have on prison population and viability - many of which come from tough love conservative influence. Federal prisons are usually reserved for genuine threats to society - so even they are guilty of maxing out population out of what they feel as need. 1. Petty crimes need not have overblown consequences and should not immediately translate to prison time. 2. Heavy fines are to be encouraged more in second offenses. 3. Life needs to stop being a common sentence. 4. Prisons need to be deprivatized. 5. The Death Penalty either needs to be enforced more often - or not at all without life in prison as the immediate alternative.

Setsuna Kaden is like....the service animal Setsuna needs. The hapless archer pretty much is amazed with Kaden because of his ordinary human ...ish... traits. Instead of Azura who has a surprisingly cute support with Kaden, but only because Kaden is a fox and the tail makes Azura behave unusually. Essentially, with Kaden around, Setsuna turns into a bow user that is just super fast and would be extraordinary, if Takumi didn't exist. (sorry, lady. #BlameTakumi) Selkie appreciates things like Quick Draw and Air Superiority (even if it's a seriously niche skill) because it helps her with damage output. Certain Blow is also really good because it makes the kitsune a much less shaky attacker. Nine-tails don't usually hit very hard, which makes some of the skill inheritance options Setsuna gives to Selkie very valuable. ARTHUR. (Revelation) This support. Is comedy gold. Essentially, this pair of incredibly unlucky characters are - for whatever reason (Corrin, I bet this was your doing.) - tasked with journeying to town and picking up supplies for a feast - only for misfortune and falling into traps to happen the whole support chain. Arthur and the food gets dunked on by dragon dung. Setsuna and the food fall into a trap...it's just great. Ironically, 1 Unlucky person + 1 Unlucky person = Percy. You will want to pass Percy the Certain Blow skill, and you may want him to swing through Archer to pick up Quick Draw and Skill +2 for any non-luck procs you may want. Certain Blow is just about overkill on Snipers, but on Wyvern Riders you are dealing with axes, a notorious weapon for their not reliable hit rate. Missing attacks, is literally the only thing Percy needed help with. Boom.

So, I've decided that I'm going to make Hinoka have some options. I have a regular Killer Lance available for her to equip already from sending Peri back to Nohr to inherit the possibility. I was originally going to send home a 5* Catria - but I don't think I want to do that. Reason being, i may want to use another Killer Lance+ to sacrifice instead later, and another reason being is actually inspired by looking at Oboro so many times. Thanks Huk. My team has a serious problem with knights. Particularly Red Knights, whenever Tharja isn't able to continue fighting. Ryoma doesn't hit hard enough, Camilla dies, and Hinoka doesn't hit hard enough. However, there's a particular lance that does super effective damage to armored units - the Heavy Lance. I'm thinking of making Hinoka a Heavy Lancer and fulfilling another niche on my team. For now, I'll keep her Killer Lance because it lets me abuse her Rising Wind...thing, more often than the few times it goes. --- In terms of mages, I have a MRobin in progress so that I can deal with arena matches a bit more often. MRobin isn't nearly as cool as Linde outside of the arena though, and while everyone likes them some Hector, I like his daughter Lillina a whole lot. That Bolgononne tome is ridiculously good. Also in the works is a Cecilia so I can have Gronnblade on a horse. It would be nice to pull Spring!Camilla next year though, because the terrain on these small phone maps can even ruin a cavaliers' day. Pulling Olwen and Leo would be pretty neat. I don't have my eyes on fliers anymore. Having Hinoka and Camilla on the same team of four makes me smile of all the great memories Fates has given me and is more than enough, and I already have pulled all three Whitewings, with two of them usable. This leaves Minerva, who I feel is overshadowed by Camilla personally, Michalis, who was a GHB I didn't beat, and clearly inferior pulls. And Narcian, who isn't as good as advertised AND is a GHB I missed. Armors, outside of maybe pulling Hector, have significantly slipped due to there not being "boots" upgrades in this game - or Move+1 (unless that's like a seal skill or something and I don't know.) I already have an Effie, Draug, and better than Draug in Zephiel - so pulling armors would need to be for quests. Where. in Naga's name. Is Azura. Lances I'm pretty good on now with Lukas and Oboro available to me, as well as Catria - but I would love to pull Ephriam. I'm not really in need of sword units. I have Chrom, Seliph, and Ryoma - while working on Eliwood. It would be cool to pull Alm or Lucina, I suppose. Colorless? I haven't gotten a single Saizo, let alone Faye, Lachesis, Elise, Sakura, Kagero, or Takumi. You know what I do have though? WRYS. - at least Priscilla is a cav heal. --- Somewhat unrelated - Fire Emblem: Switch needs a cavalier or flying songtress. With Azura being noteworthy for her voice and not just her sweet dance moves - units, like Shigure, who would be an awesome singing Peg Knight if children were to be released in some batch in the future, could sing and have better move. Shigure doesn't need a lance as good as his mother's of course, but it should just be a thing. Heck, Ninian is a singing DRAGON.

I at least got the three star Zephiel. I went with Hinoka, Camilla, Tharja, and Ryoma. The biggest problems I seem to have in GHBs are Mages. Allowing them to attack you hurts your chances on most maps. Take them out first and you have Zephiel and two Knights who are unable to give proper chase to your units - allowing your magic users to wear them down. Ursula is fantastic, as blue units only really fear the AxeKnight and she's well able to outrun him. I imagine MRobin, Linde, etc work fine. My strategy involved retaliation spam. Have Tharja/Ryoma counterattack Red Mage on first enemy phase. Draw out Blue Mage and kill him with Camilla/Ryoma, 2 space knights and try to position in a way Zephiel can't engage you. Kill Knights. Kill Zephiel by using 2 range units first and if you have to your 1 range for killing blows.

Orochi Orochi is - woefully - slow and certainly not bulky enough to function by herself. That being said - there's a few pretty cool things you can do with her as a mother. - Saizo (Birthright) Saizo's supports are generally all goldmines, unless he's dealing with Corrin, who just has no personality at all. With Orochi however, the Angry Ninja gets outsavaged by Orochi - even though it's kinda cheating when your story niche is that you can see into the future. Orochi, who is Kagero's "BFF" and has a slight disdain for Saizo prior to the support chain due to Kagero formerly dating him, toys with Saizo and ends up embarrassing him, only to be wrong in a prediction about who was to meet a tragic fate (it was a rather after-the-fact telling of his father, Saizo the Forth, being felled by what would be known to the player as Kotaro, the daimyo of Mokushu.) The two make ammends in A, and Orochi (as she does in a few of her supports) already is aware of Saizo's proposal in S. The resulting Asugi-Mother support is hilarious with Orochi as his mother due to her whimsy. Many of the other possible mothers (Hana, Hinoka, Oboro) are much more serious than he is, and make their supporting Asugi in the field rather bland. Orochi is kind of like that overly rambunctious soccer-mom that would TOTALLY blow a mission, so it works better with her. Unit-wise, Asugi becomes a rather adept mixed attacker - and he's worth sticking Orochi to him due to the ability to access Rend Heaven with his physical Shuriken (of if you're lucky, Felicia's Plate, albeit not too much due to the plate's low might), while having a noteworthy effectiveness with the Flame Shuriken. If you play with Fem!Corrin especially, Flame Shuriken Asugi is worth considering as Felicia 2 comes rather late. The important thing to note here. While Orochi's speed modifier is atrocious, Asugi's own speed modifier is more than capable of compensating for it. This makes it a good pairing for you the player, because Orochi doesn't end up saddling another kid that needs some speed help from Mom. Azama (Birthright) Not the best Mitama pairing, nor is Orochi really the lady Azama wants, but is totally worth it for the support and helps Orochi by giving her access to Priestess. If you have ever seen the "The Roast of" series on the comedy channel, that's essentially what this support is. Azama capitalizes on Orochi's fear of rats, and she gets him back by charming him into marrying her. Mitama might like Tomefaire if she goes Onmyogi and Rally Magic to go with her Rally Luck - and every unit likes Rend Heaven and Mitama might still be able to pull off a mixed Basara (after slogging through E Lances.) Odin (Revelation) This family is just WAAAAAAAAY too high on whimsy, but that's why it works. Ophelia already having a magic disposition really likes access to Tomefaire, and Orochi gives her the skill levels she can't get from having anyone else be her mother. That being said, it comes at the cost of speed, which negates her being your typical Fire Emblem aggressive magic user. Rather than Rend Heaven, what Ophelia Dusk really wants from Orochi is Quixotic, the level 15 Basara skill. This skill raises Ophelia's ability to proc Vengeance to roughly 68 percent of the time. If you are really aware of what you should pass down from Owain (oops) - you should have reclassed him into a Samurai and gotten him Vantage. This makes Ophelia a Vantage/Vengeance tank. The positive Orochi has over Elise and Nyx is that she tends to be bulkier and provide better bulk to Ophelia as a result. Make sure you use Ophelia's personal tome and bring her whole magic library for her personal skill to proc. She won't need to be fast. THE BIGGEST PROBLEM this presents, is that you have to find someone else to pair Elise with - and Ophelia is the only kid that she really can help out.

Azura - Kaze (Not Revelation, but definitely when the Avatar chooses one nation over the other.) This is a pairing that is incredibly safe and is focused on getting Midori the most Luck she can, as it's possible for her to proc Miracle every time she's attacked with a lethal hit - and not die. Azura essentially opens up to Kaze in her support with him as he ferries letters for her - if I recall. Both characters (in -MY- opinion I guess) are well written and Kaze is one of those guys that fits with everyone due to his well mannered characterization. Shigure would probably want other fathers, but has support use for Replicate and Kaze doubles down on Shigure's own speed. Midori gets to be pretty good, and is someone that wants Luck+4 over Voice of Peace so she can proc things all the time. In Conquest, I think this even impacts Midori's ability to fill the war chest by finding Gold Bars. - Arthur (Underrated support) Arthur actually saved Azura when she was a child after she escaped Castle Krakenburg. He took a flogging from the Nohrian royal guard after feigning that he was kidnapping the princess. (it seemed like a rather light punishment, but Nohrians were rather not enthused by Queen Arete or her daughter.) Classic Hero and Somehow-Damsel-In-Distress pairing. Azura!Percy has no business not capping Luck. You should game over if Percy fails to do so. Shigure gets access to HP+5, is still going to be fast, and Rally Strength from Berserker to accompany his FalcoRallying repertoire. and the best non-Avatar pairing is Laslow. Laslow, for those of you who don't Fire Emblem.....and live under a rock, is Inigo from Awakening. Inigo is the son of another dancer in the franchise, Olivia, and is quite the avid dancer himself (even though he's a Mercenary.) His support with the Lady of the Lake focuses on Laslow's dancing ability, as Azura catches him practicing. She enjoys watching, much to Laslow's embarrassment, but Laslow's promiscuity causes Azura to run in C. Azura uses B to instruct Laslow to better his abilities, and abruptly runs again. In A, Laslow finally gets it down in a satisfactory manner, and Azura joins him in dance in S, making for the best musical duo in camp. Laslow offers Shigure decent speed, but really only doubles down on Shigure's strengths. He does however have access to Rally Movement from Bow Knight, and like his father, likes being a Rallybot. I'm not sure what Soliel wants from Azura. Her defense is poor, and her HP is also poor, and none of the Songtress skills really strike Soliel's fancy. As a Bow Knight, Azura's BETTER THAN IKE strength growth is accompanied by not having to engage in hand-to-hand combat, meaning she would prefer that over Hero. She should probably get Voice of Peace from Mom, but Luck+4 is viable too. Nyx - Hayato (Revelation) Hayato is afraid of the dark. He's totally a man though, so he asks a dark mage for a curse to overcome his fear of the dark. (Sounds like a horrible idea.) - and Nyx obliges, only to pretend to cast a curse on him. The placebo effect works, but she reveals later that he was able to overcome his fear on his own. What makes this support fantastic is that Nyx is an old hag trapped in a young body, and Hayato is a grown man, who really is just a kid who wants to grow up. Sorceress. Rhajat. Is canon. What you are going to want to do however, is have Nyx befriend Orochi and dabble as an Onmyoji for Tomefaire. This allows Hayato to reclass into Oni Cheiftian and pick up Death Blow. Rhajat will come equipped with Tomefaire from Nyx, and Death Blow from Hayato, along with the ability to reclass to Dark Mage. Sorry Ophelia, there's a new magic sherriff in town. - Niles (Conquest) This support is good for the pure humor. The resulting Nina is essentially Shining Bow, Magic, or bust - but having Nyx remove Niles' ability to speak only to tell Niles she WANTS him to talk dirty to her in S. Now that is the best boomerang support chain for the funny bone. It works. Hinata - Selena (Revelation) THIS PAIRING IS BETTER THAN MAKING CORDELIA HER OWN GRANDMOTHER. SORRY SUBAKI. First, Hinata, who gets a slightly earlier jointime in Rev to Selena, is looking for speed because he's an unorthodox Samurai. Severa (oops) grants that wish. Severa really likes the Samurai line because she's a footlock sword user herself. She could work with Swordfaire and Astra. The resulting Pickles is pretty good too, as Selena is one of his best mothers for bulk, and gives him access to Shurikenbreaker from Bow Knight to compensate for a weakness. If you want Hisame to be decent, Selena is one of the better mothers in the game. The support between Hinata and Selena focuses on both parties' out of control competitive natures. Hinata being annoying to Selena is satisfying (even though I like Selena) and Selena is a lot like me when it comes to competitions. Silas Selena (Conquest) Cav Bro wants speed, and Selena is really the only Nohrian woman that gives it, competing with Azura for his attention. Both ladies offer Sky Knight (Silas' Heart Seal reclass is Mercenary, so Sky Knight is used for Selena, Azura passes Sky Knight by default.) and TsunderMerc offers better skills to Sophie by default than Azura, so Selena wins. Selena appreciates the extra movement, bulk, and bite from Silas in return. Sophie ends up being pretty fast, and depending on the skill Severa passes down, has a different niche in her base Cavalier line. If she's given Strong Riposte, she's a good Enemy Phase tank as a Great Knight. If she's given Sol, she's a good Paladin. However, what you really want to do (because Mercenary is easy for Sophie to go into), is pass down Darting Blow from Sky Knight, so Sophie doesn't have to drop her swords just to go get it. She doesn't really want anything else from the line anyway. Darting Blow + Strong Riposte + Elbow Room makes Sophie a tough cookie in all phases of the turn. Again, Selena and her spouse to be are competing, except this time, Silas is sought out by the Tsundere because of his equally sterling work ethic. They compete until Silas makes some form of concession by asking for Selena's hand in marriage. Hinoka (Birthright) Again, Silas wants to go fast, and Hinoka doesn't join all that much after he does, so the availability, as it is with Selena in Conquest, isn't an issue. Hinoka also likes Silas' bonus strength and bulk to get going. Hinoka: the Selena of Hoshido. Sophie again picks up Sky Knight from her mother - so if you have the time, Hinoka should fiddle around in HER Heart Seal reclass before recruiting Sophie and Avel. As it turns out, Hinoka is pretty good with a naginata OFF of a pegasus, having access to the Spear Fighter line. This gets Sophie potential endowments such as Lancefaire, making her get bonus damage when using a weapon she'll be ready to use, and Rend Heaven, which will proc for even more damage regardless of which weapon she's wielding. Sophie gets the best of both worlds, access to Strong Riposte, Darting Blow, and Elbow Room is there again, and she again probably won't need DB just to double. It just makes for nice insurance on Player Phase. Sophie would also like things like the Seal skills, but that doesn't set Hinoka apart from Oboro, a high demand mom on the Birthright path. Camilla (Revelation) You can give the Bewitching Beauty to Ryoma for the equivalent of Ryoma Emblem Gone Wild. Or you could give her to Takumi for that creepy Kiragi that has Camilla's obsessive tendencies in the Festival scramble. (God, pray for that child.) ...or you can give Camilla to neither because that's choosing either a disgusting support for a broken Shiro or a fine support for a Kiragi that is the stuff of nightmares. Silas' support with Camilla is pretty decent. It mirrors her support with Arthur in that Camilla has Silas ferrying messages to Corrin, but instead of Arthur mucking up the job, Silas completes it only for Corrin's responses to be less than satisfactory for Camilla. Then Silas absolutely takes charge and confesses that he had feelings for her when he was younger after confusing them for being jealous of Corrin having sisters. (He's got a sister fetish, Odin thinks it's weird.)....in the -A- Support. Camilla reciprocates, but only in the past, qualifying that the moment might have passed and they decide to leave it behind as adults. Silas then tries a proposal - having previously asked for Corrin's blessing - and proceeds to join the winning team in the last Heroes gauntlet. Sophie is a Cavalier. That learns Trample......It just makes perfect sense. She can also go into Wyvern Rider and make use of her lance rank in Wyvern Lord, picking up Swordbreaker (which she can use as a Cav or a lance-flier with great success) - She also picks up Rally Defense from WL, as well as Savage Blow from Malig Knight. Wyvern Rider+Cavalier is a solid combination of classes.

The name you are looking for is Setsuna. Setsuna gives Quick Draw to Hisame, which is pretty neat. I have a hard time finding a great mom for him because most of the time Hisame ends up a very average character. Quick Draw definitely helps him out on player phase, which will also be in effect alongside the Samurai-typical Duelist's Blow, meaning he'll get 4 to 8 extra points of damage on top of some avoid when he initiates combat. I feel like Setsuna also helps out Selkie (Kaden's daughter) more though in Birthright for the same reason, while also being naturally evasive. I guess the same premise applies. As for Revelation - I have a fun Setsuna pairing for later. In Birthright -and- Conquest, I pair up Azura with Kaze too.

As Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia steams nearer and nearer (literally about to drop in Japan) - I figured it would be appropriate to send off the last 3DS titles (Fates: Conquest/Birthright/Revelation) on one last forum hurrah before they are ushered to the funny farm. This is a pairing preference forum. I essentially will start us off by listing pairings I think work the best using supports, apparent chemistry, and resulting pair-up bonuses/child units as metrics for why I prefer those pairings. If you didn't know, Fates allowed you to matchmake your units if they were opposite gender (or not, if your Avatar decided to enter a homosexual relationship with Niles if you were male, or Rhajat if you were female.) You are allowed to use any of the routes you wish, but for me, I will mostly be using Revelation, because of the more freedom I have to pair within that game. You may list multiple pairings for one character if you are so inclined. Let's go. --- AzuraXCorrin The only Avatar pairing I can feasibly list (as Corrin is this games version of the Pokemon Ditto) due to the game's nudging it's canonical nature. Incest be darned, Corrin and Azura's circumstances and chemistry in all three routes, especially in their various different supports. The ending of Revelation's route changes slightly if you marry Azura in that route as well. Corrin!Shigure goes without saying, but there's potential to be really good at just about a lot of things. Kana would rather Azura not be her mother, but she's Kana, so it won't hurt her too badly - especially if she gets Voice of Peace from Mom while staying in the Nohr Princess class tree. --- Charlotte Charlie!Xander (Conquest) Xander completely sniffs out Charlotte's two-face act in the C support and demands her to stop, which means this is a support Charlotte isn't being a phony throughout. She happily ends up getting her prince, and Xander happily is able to pretend he is Ryoma on top of being next to invincible. Seigbert's bad haircut sucks 75% less with Charlotte's golden color, as it goes with his royal riding gear. Charlie!Saizo (Revelation) Saizo memes so hard in his supports with Nohrian women. With Beruka, his entire C support is "...", while with Charlotte he is the biggest savage imaginable (Eat your heart out, Jakob.) I think it's absolutely canon that Fates!Gaius was conceived after a titanic argument. Gameplay-wise, Saizo can actually kill things with Charlotte as a backpack, and is the bulkier of the ninjas available by default. Charlotte appreciates the extra movement "One-Eye" provides her - as well as being recognized for all the hard work she does around camp. Blonde!Asugi doesn't play games - and has access to Sol, Axebreaker (which helps him as a Ninja), Gamble (which works very well with Asugi's skill and Hidden Weapons), and lots of Str growths. Essentially Kagero, but cooler. --- Effie EffieXArthur (Conquest) The two co-retainers go together like peanut butter and jelly. They have a meaningful support where Arthur tries to do his job as a retainer better by using Effie as a sterling role model, and Effie sets him straight by re-affirming who he is - the Hero Nohr doesn't deserve but desperately needs. It's a fast growing support and both join early in Conquest, making it the most ideal pairing for that route without even talking about how much of a monster Percy ends up. Percy gets access to Axefaire from his father, which he can use as a Wyvern Rider -or- as a Great Knight (which he should definitely swing into for Luna.) Axes are also transferable into the General class, meaning you can have a lance-baiting wall as well as Effie's, Benny's, and Ignatius' typical swordbaiting. There's also Sol. There's also Effie's strength endowment. There's the fact that Wyvern Lord is a good bulky class that can fly. There's Percy's personal greatness. Wunderkind, baby. EffieXAzama (Revelation) Ready for something not related to this support? Effie is roughly around the same age as Elise. So there you go. Fun Fact. Azama finds Effie injured often due to a Knight's duties to be in the frontlines and take abuse. He complains about it because this presumed recklessness means more work for him. Effie finds this amusing and the two hook up after Azama begins to find Effie's work ethic and determination admirable. Essentially, Effie's fair-weather personality shuts down Azama's holier-than-thou personality and helps him find value in his partner. Great support. Mitama (and her father for that matter) really hate being clerics. They look for the perfect potential family member to provide them with ways out of cleric line, while Mitama specifically wants some growths to help her out (even if they only reinforcing her role as a Shrine Maiden if you choose to pair Azama at the back of the que.) Effie is assuredly a physical mother, so she ends up doing great things for Azama like giving him the easily transferable Great Master > General path. Mitama is given Knight as a secondary, and Effie's growths to make it work out for her as a Knight. Because they ARE Monks and Shrine Maidens - Azama and Mitama can become Knights with RENEWAL, which means they heal up significant amounts of HP every turn. Excellent. My personal favorite however, is passing down Tomebreaker from Effie's nonsensical Troubadour access, and then picking up Wary Fighter through easy levels in General, before going back to Shrine Maiden. Aesthetically, Mitama looks great in the class, and WF allows her to bait enemies to your army, while Tomebreaker ensures she's not getting hit at all from magic users. --- I have more for sure, but I want some of you guys' ideas too, alright?

As someone who has used quite a few units in this game now, I'll rank me favorites. I don't like doing arena and I've only successfully gotten past Grand Hero Navarre out of all of those events, but I enjoy the Voting Gauntlet and Story maps/Paralogues 1. Hinoka. I really think Hinoka is the most dependable Pegasus Knight I have. When she gets her Killer Lance, I'll be looking for another proc for her as her AoE skill will still take about 3-4 turns even with the KL. She's fantastic and with the help of the shards she caught up to my main squad pretty quickly. 2. Ryoma. He's literally just as broken as he is in Birthright when the Raijinto is available. And it's a beautiful thing. #RyomaEmblem 3. Lukas. Lukas has a lot of potential. He edges out Effie (And I LOOOOOOOOOVE Effie) because his movement is less painstaking and his Obstruct skill is actually helpful for keeping enemy axes at bay. As Hukuna has said, Bonfire or Ignis makes Lukas hurt a LOT, enough to challenge Tiki if he can get to her first. 4. Tharja. This woman hurts. And she comes with darting blow so she can cause double the pain. Talk about reliability. 5. OG!Camilla. Where Tharja dishes it out, Camilla isn't all that afraid of anything (except bows). The trade off for the bow weakness is being able to fly over terrain, which depending on enemy layout can only speed up beating certain maps. Also....Brave Axe+Darting Blow is egregious. I'd imagine Spring!Camilla is much more effective at getting past Knights however. 6. Palla. I really like having a flyer that handles axes. And Palla's a 10. (forget Catria.) 7. Effie. Effie has a lot of great things going for her, and I really like that she comes with offense. I need to pull more of her so I can give Lukas Death Blow...or someone else with DB. Again though, 1 move...is a pain. 8. Olivia. Not Azura/10. Hone Attack is fine, and I'm sure the Feroxi dancer has the ability to hold her own next to Azura and Ninian, but it's a preference thing. She's not the dancer I started with. 9. Priscilla. Woo. 5 Star Healer......................that's really all that needs to be said. 10. Klein. Not his mother/10. Brave Bow though? VERY NICE. Definitely a work in progress. Honorable Mentions: Cecilia, MRobin, Felicia, Draug, FCorrin

Ok, my Lukas is +HP, -Atk Thats not completely awful considering Fortress Def will not take too much HP from a beefy Lukas (and the HP+3 Seal negates the payment). I think the optimal Lukas is +Def,-Speed. This is because if he is doubled more often he can proc them skills all the time thanks to his Killer Lance, and the defensive nature of his covers him.

I -also- got a 5 star Lukas on my second roll of the banner! (I knew I liked this guy's design when he was revealed.) He comes with a very defensive oriented build. His Killer Lances are occumpanied by the Sacred Cowl procs, which boosts his defense by 30 percent against Archers and Mages up to every third move (second with KL). His skills continue the theme of "wall with pointy stick." Fortress Def will always cost Lukas 3 points of HP, but will increasingly bolster Lukas' physical defense depending on proficiency rank. Obstruct is the opposite of Pass. Lukas, at decreasing levels of hitpoints remaining, prevents enemies from traveling on adjacent spaces (let alone through Lukas!). This is a good skill to give to an armored unit if you roll more than one of these guys. Especially for upcoming defense maps! --- Next I'll be rolling for Clair, then Faye, and then Alm. Clair is just a cool snooty noble character. She also is a blue unit. Meaning I could roll another Lukas for Obstruct-Effie...or Azura.... one can hope I like Faye's bow - and Kagero, Sakura, and Elise... and Takumi..... --- I need this new 3DS game now, Nintendo. MY BODY. IS READY.

In the future... you had to know this was coming. Echoes pulls! Alm - Lord/Warrior ...? (Swords) - Probably gonna be rocking the Valentian Falchion at 5*, so hide your Tikis, Faes, Nowis, and Lady Corrins. - Reportedly has Dragon Gaze, so might have Aura. Lukas - Lancer Warrior Faye - Bow user Claire - Pegasus Knight (Lances) --- Noteworthy omission - Celica. --- The plan is probably to release these four units at the time of the Japan release. These four units should be in Alm's army. Celica and three of her troops should be a banner in May for the international release of SoV. If you saved your orbs for new characters. You were smart.

Wartime has historically been a motivator for American nationalism and unification. Period. One example already used is Iraq - where the controversial 2000 elections were washed aside following 9/11 and Bush's engagement on the War on Terror. Americans red and blue alike were galvanized by the prospect of more attacks on the homeland and it played into Bush's 2004 re-election bid over John Kerry, which he won much more comfortably. Another example are the two World Wars and how the country rallied behind Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. War is a huge part those presidents saw lengthy stays in the White House. --- I don't believe it's in America's immediate interest to destabilize any nation - but it has a poor track record when it comes to successfully nation building in the last two decades - resulting in terror cells rising from the ashes of wars against traditional governments. It's a nasty side effect that America absolutely needs to avoid if it's going to engage Syria this time. It's never been the country's desire to leave Syria vacant so that ISIS or an equivalent can replace Assad. However, many Americans regardless of political identity have had a desire to remove Assad from power because of his inability to rule his nation without committing war crimes against his own citizens. --- While we may not know as much as we'd like about the rebellion -or- Assad, we know that holding a seat of power like Assad does comes with an inherent responsibility to protect your own citizens. This puts Assad at an inherent disadvantage when it comes to perception abroad as he has failed to do so and is actively trying to kill his own people if they oppose his rule. That alone makes it hard to back Assad up. Modern warfare has also been highly dependent on alliances. Syria happens to be aligned with Russia, which for the mainstream American is another black eye for Assad regardless of reasoning* behind the alliance (which I'll get to). Russia also seems to be involved in helping Syria fight it's civil war, meaning Russia is more concerned with helping the Syrian regime than it is fighting ISIS (as it has claimed it is doing by backing Assad.) * I don't think Russia's "one" reason is because Syria is a non-theocratic state and it opposes religion. Another of Russia's best friends is Iran, which is totally an Islamic theocracy. One of the major reasons Iran is a Russian trading partner is because the West has largely sanctioned the country, making Russia the most attractive partner remaining. Syria likely has a similar deal with the Russians. --- There are a few Democrats, Independents, and Republicans alike who are opposed to the notion of striking Syria. Starting from the left, we have the Berniecrats. The left wing of the Democratic Party has traditionally been doves and oppose any violence abroad. They also tend to mock Trump for reneging on a 2013 Twitter-storm against Obama when the former president was also considering attacking Syria. You have libertarians and libertarian-minded Republicans such as Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who have always held, from a more conservative standpoint, that America isn't to be the world's policemen. See: Jericho Then you have Trumpians who were more on board with his populism than his representation of the Republican Party. These types are the alt-right figures from his campaign - such as Steve Bannon (who THANKFULLY is losing more and more influence in Trump's White House in favor of son-in-law Jared Kushner.) Mainstream blocs from both parties - or what you typically think of when you think of Democratic or Republican figures who have been in Washington for a while, are largely supportive of the action Trump made. There may be bipartisan disapproval as well, but these are fringe groups behind most of the dissatisfaction. --- The reason bi-partisan appeal is "good" for Trump is that it helps him bolster some allies. I never meant that it was good for America to bomb Syria in general (although almost all of us can agree that it's good SOME action is taking place against that country.) In the microscope that is focused on Trump's presidency, the strike on Syria is the greatest action of impact he has taken that has impressed people from all over the board. This could be Trump's 9/11 or Pearl Harbor moment (which wasn't a happy moment in history, but is one that unified the nation.) - and in the midst of people trying to fight the very fact that he exists off the face of the earth - he really needed something to bounce his way. Bringing it all full circle, conflicts abroad re-shape the presidency. --- I'm well aware of China's alliance with North Korea - but that doesn't excuse the United States being a patsy and subjecting it's ally in South Korea to fear it's neighbor will harm them. China seems to more less "unconditional" than was advertised, and is only backing North Korea because they sure as heck don't want a united Korea that is too friendly to the United States. The thing about North Korea is, the country doesn't even need to change North Korea's government all that much. It's literally Pyongyang's leadership that is slinging the muck on that country's perception. I would contend that the United States is prepared to take on Russia, and has been rather unwilling for the sake of diplomacy. Russia certainly didn't do anything other than move a battleship to Syria in response to the United States flipping them off with the strike. --- Finally, I would like to say that I never said I trust President Trump's trigger fingers even if they have earned themselves a "W". I trust the people Trump has with him. Mad Dog and McMaster (who is much better than Flynn) were some of Trump's better nominations. Nikki Haley at the U.N. is a good person to trust. His son in law - despite the rather lousy idea that making any business a family business is automatically bad - is a well measured personality. Trump's presidency largely depends on how successful his advisory team can inform him of what's going on. He has good people - and that makes the potential ceiling his presidency has higher than the liberal comedian circuit will lead you to believe. Of course, if your mindset is set to #Resist, Trump could completely bring everyone's loved ones back from war in one fell swoop and he would still be hated by his opponents for it.

It's praiseworthy because being opposed to the Syrian regime is bipartisan. It's well within the mainstream, and for Trump that's an exceptional feat. In fact - on a day Neil Gorsuch was easily confirmed as a new Justice without opposition factoring into it - Democrats ended up lauding Trump for his unexpected turn to being agreeable abroad. Much to my dismay, war has a nasty habit of being one of the best ways to unify Americans. If war does break out, this will follow the same cycle Iraqi Freedom did. Bipartisan hawks will make it an easy declaration of war on our country's behalf, and successes will come when Syria's traditional government is crushed under our superior forces. The unideal possibility of Syria being destabilized as other middle eastern countries have will be there. The Russian bear most assuredly would be poked. There may be fallout of all kinds - but it's enough to rally the country initially so long as Syria is seen as a threat. --- I don't think war is better than other more effective humanitarian efforts. In Syria however, I have a sinking suspicion Assad nor the rebellion he is dealing with will be willing to stop killing each other and the citizens around them. Mike is right. We need to stop arming the rebels. ESPECIALLY if toppling Syria isn't our intent. We also need Assad to assume the role of a leader that protects his entire country. That likelihood is highly unlikely.

North Korea seemingly barks a whole lot and bites very little. Firing missiles into the ocean is quite a bit different from sarin gassing people where they are. This matters because the North Koreans are really not doing all that much to warrant martial action that results in destruction. However, We're looking at North Korea down the nose because of the tight grip their government has on their citizens. I don't think North Korea has to like us in order to be a good country. They do need to stop sabre rattling and that might involve a change in leader. Notice I said "rest of the world" and not "the United States" as well. Is it more ideal to allow people be killed by their government -and- ban them from traveling to our country? Or as the rest of the world, should we defend those that need it? Making an environment that is ideal will stop them from fleeing to us. The ban seems to be Trump's prerogative. It will be better complimented by involvement to give those people an alternative. Syria is more allied to Russia and Iran than it is to ITSELF. It's actively engaging in a civil war and it's so concerned with it that Syria is a safe haven for ISIS on top of being a problem from a humanitarian perspective. It's a state that will attack if allowed to do so. To say defending those are in the crosshairs is equivalent of world domination is absurd.

Look - the idea is that every martial action a group that can't be negotiated with makes begets a martial consequence. Nobody should be allowed to sarin gas their neighbors - be it Assad or otherwise. Assad has proven to be a horrible puppet ruler whose own aggressions are justifiable reason ENOUGH to be a refugee and head out of Dodge. If he were to be toppled, yes, maybe extreme religious rebels fail to make the country better, but that's why nation building is appealing. States that consider the rest of the world an ally and strive for peace are the only tolerable governments there should be in existence. It's these governments that people tend not to flee. We've always differed on foreign policy, Mike. I don't intend to change your views. I just doubt isolationism being "really" possible in the modern world. We have allies that depend on us. We have various campaigns abroad as is - and you already conceded being a free trader. Being a part of this world is more than the bottom line though. --- I don't think Trump did this out of a whim. The administration has loads of work preceding it on Syria and it's fairly reasonable to see that Syria reneged on a deal after the American page turn. --- Iraq was indeed a terrible war and we were indeed wrong about WMDs in the country. However, Saddam Hussein isn't better than Al Queda. Assad isn't better than ISIS. If you are going to be a tyrant in a traditional seat of power, you are not protected by your status. It's actions that make you a terror agent.

Mike - Assad is due opposition. Even if that investigation of yours is correct, there's a reason Syrian refugees are a thing right now. There's a reason there is a rebellion right now. Surely -you- know what Aleppo is? The notion of non-intervention only prolongs those peoples struggles. Unless you think the rebels are the real problem. Which is unfortunate if -Assad- is Syria's idea of the good guy. --- Never said it was noble - and it's a last resort if Trump just made his point and it's left at that. It's more effective than democracy that doesn't do it's job.

I think it's definitely possible Trump is showing Putin the door in a bid to clean up perception about him. Politically speaking - this was the right move to make. This is a move I could see a President Hillary Clinton make (and one she actually advocated the day of.) and yes - the best way to get Russiagate behind you is to outright oppose Russia. Did it have to come to tomahawk missiles? Probably not. However it could also be an indication that negotiations and diplomacy had not done enough to convince Assad under the previous administration that he should completely let go of his chemical weapons. The new intelligence we had following the attack indicated that we had been lied to. And the new administration wasn't going to negotiate with a liar. I believe Trump realized Assad was a bad business partner - and that the attack was a flagrant ignorance of contract. There's not many ways to deal with those who don't honor their word. Peace through strength isn't a bad last resort - so long as it's treated as such.

On a day when former opponent Hillary Clinton suggested bombing the Syrian air base responsible for gassing it's own citizens with outlawed substances, President Trump did exactly that. The same President Trump that was opposed to military action in Syria in 2013 and was supposedly best friends with Syria's chief ally, Russia. As a person, I can't say that I like war actions being taken as it's a horrible waste of life - and a life for another is nothing but a base act of revenge. As an American, seeing Trump take an egregious action against Syria and Russia is appropriately mainstream - and appreciated. The States' traditional global allies cheered President Trump's actions - even those who are directly opposite Trump on the political spectrum, such as Canada's Trudeau and Germany's Merkel. As a non-Trump voter, this is evidence of the office normalizing the office holder. And the gravity of the Presidency beating Trump's ego daily would make him a respectable leader. Yes, he should definitely learn to consult Congress when he chooses to strike others, and no, I don't expect people to like President Trump's entire policy, but if needed, Trump's first real military foray was one that was supported by left and right alike and could be one of the positive lights of his presidency. Isolationists from Bernie Democrats to Trump's "alt-right" fanboys were put off, but honestly, that's not a lot of lost support. Well done, Mr. President. I'm genuinely impressed.

But. But. She's basically Haar in her game. You wouldn't know that because you benched her due to being a prepromote.

I'll join Cordelia when she can learn how to support with Chrom. I'll likely be supporting Camilla or trying for a good rank with Hinoka. Who is getting DESTROYED. --- Camilla is a definitely physically appealing to most of the games clientele. However, saying Camilla will win -because- of that fact is a bit of a hasty generalization. Sheep pointed out potential strategy as to how Cordy or Minerva can pull the upset - but there's also a few things about Camilla specifically that stick out. 1. She was featured in a recent banner prior to the Gauntlet banner - renewing player interest. 2. She's a decent unit or a unique one depending on the Camilla in question. 3. She was already very high on the legends poll. and finally - ganging up on someone before the event starts causes the ornery of us to feel like the challenge should be met. Campaigning against Camilla was high - and yet look at the disparity between her and Hinoka. Camilla could literally make like President Trump - where she's detested the whole way through - but secretly carried by many to victory.

This is about the only way Subaki or Beruka gets to round two - beating the other retainer. I don't know how I feel about Camilla v. Hinoka round one. Hinoka may get the initial upset because people seem to be rallying up against the Bewitching Beauty before the event drops. Camilla has fans for reasons other than the two most obvious ones - and that might matter the whole way through. I think Subaki may be the better Heroes unit. However, I'd be on Beruka's team.

I am somewhat confident in these matchups. Subaki v. Beruka - Retainer duel. Palla v. Minerva - Older game fans better decide from the get-go who their champion is. Cordelia v. Cherche - ...as with the Awakeners. Hinoka v. Camilla - (NOOOOOOOOOOOO)

Games being datamined - so I'll avoid most content (save for Mathilda's picture. She cool.) the Amiibo support in this game applies to more Amiibo than Fates did, adding Roy and -naturally- Mamui and Femui. However, all non Echoes Amiibo function as shades - disappatting after one turn. -Most- Falchion weilders are able to kill Duma with the final blow. All, except for Lucina. Revenge, Team Ephriam.

Get Awakening first.